Avalon Mysts

Chapter 3

The main path ran parallel to the brook, winding in and around the underbrush that lined the banks. Little animals scurried up and down the trees, like they were playing a devilishly clever game of tag with their friends, all the while ignoring the two humans that walked amidst them.

"You do know where you're going right?..." Aurora asked. The boy looked behind with eyebrows cocked.

"Yes, Milady. I know exactly where we are going."

"...Oh." She muttered quietly to herself, continuing her exploratory surveillance into the lives of the hypo energetic chipmunks and squirrels.

They soon came to a ford over the waters and crossed over into a new kind of forest where the trees grew to massive widths and heights. Needle like leaves the length of a person's for-arm hung from the blue pine branches, dancing in the wind that raced through the trees. The light became shrouded and the air filled with the scent of damp cedar and lavender buds. It was breathtakingly invigorating.

Aurora had to keep up with her guide who seemed unaffected by the surrounding splendour. She had so many questions to ask, but was afraid he might leave her behind out of tedium.

"You're not that much of a talker, are you?" He said with a smirk quite a ways up ahead. Aurora could feel the heat in her cheeks but realized that he was too far away to see.

"-Just trying to soak it all in..." She stated uneasily.

The boy nodded, waiting for some external acknowledgement of her inner toils and fears to emerge. Aurora released a shaky sigh and grounded herself to the idea that this whole event, might actually not be a dream.

"We might want to expedite our pace if we don't want to be caught out after nightfall..." He hinted as politely as he could manage. Aurora's face turned red and she quickly dug her eyes into the ground as they continued on in silence.

Hours passed and all that could be heard were the muffled sounds of the forest along with some random tune Aurora's companion was humming aloud. The trees then began to part and the sun shone through a clearing that spanned for at least a mile. The entire clearing was one big hill, with a lovely stone cottage perched atop it's crown. Tall grass lined the grounds, wafting in the late afternoon air, glistening in the setting sun.

A loud echoing growl cascaded through the space and surrounded the two. Wide eyed the boy looked at Aurora who had a bashful look on her face as she clutched her gullet. "Ahherm.... I'm hungry..." She muttered, face gone a deep shade of crimson. The boy tried his damnedest to muffle a laugh and motioned her onward to the cottage.

The building was vacant of life, vague marks from charring left behind on the walls and old furniture. The door groaned as it was caught in the wind. The sense of dread and pain hung upon each and every stone that remained behind. Aurora glanced into her companion's dull and lifeless eyes. She didn't have to ask why they were there.

"This was my home many years back..." he muttered complacently. Aurora nodded solemnly and stood there, uneasy and awkward.

"... Um... Excuse me?..." Aurora muttered quietly, her voice quaking in nervousness. The boy glanced over silently. "... How did I get here?"

He was taken aback by her question, noticing the vacant and expectant gaze in her eyes as she watched him pull out some food from his bag. Silence ensued, and Aurora began to wonder where all the food he was pulling out was coming from. There was a huge variety of vegetables and herbs, bread and cheese folded up nice and neatly in this tiny fold of fabric he carried on his back. Slowly he began to prep their supper, while Aurora stood beside the door twiddling her thumbs in anticipation of his answer.

"You can sit down, Lass." He said, motioning to a ragged chair to his right. "You're probably going to need to after what I tell ye." She obeyed without a second thought, plopping lightly down onto the rough rickety chair, almost falling through in the process.

His fingers quickly cut up the last of the carrots and tossed them into the pot perched atop a fire pit, awaiting to be lit.

"My name is Peregrith, son of Enslek and Adianna..." Red-hot fire began licking at the pot, making the broth dance and bubble from the heat near instantly. Aurora sat in silence. "People around here simply call me 'Pery'." He stated lightly as he handed her a bowl of what looked like slop.

Aurora glared at the concoction, her stomach growling hungrily yet again. Taking a deep breath and putting on her bravest face she swallowed down the first mouthful. Her taste buds were tingling with blandness, but she was hungry. Pery sat beside her on the bottom side of an old wooden bucket.

"You are in Avalon, Lass, a world apart from your own."

Aurora's mind froze. She knew that she wasn’t home anymore, but to have it verbally confirmed just made it that much more mind numbing. Many things ran through her head at that moment, and the one big question that overshadowed all the rest poked through the internal babble, into the open silence around them.

“How am I going to get back?” She whispered to herself, more so than her companion. She glanced to Pery who sat there as still as a statue, eyes unable to make contact. Aurora knew what that meant; she had seen it countless times with her mother within the last couple of hard years. There was no hope in hell of her finding her way back.

The food in her belly threatened to revolt as she closed her eyes and took many deep, regulated breaths. It was a couple of minutes before she realized Pery was talking to her, trying to calm her from her little internal meltdown.

“One never knows in Avalon. There could most definitely be a way back to your world, I just… Kanna will know.” He said at last, trying not to go into a panic himself. He wrapped a blanket around Aurora as she huddled next to the bristling fire. The blanket was warm; comforting… temporarily shielding her from her own racing emotions. Pery didn’t know what to say to the girl he had so recently just met. He felt as if he should comfort her, but the action of reaching out to her scared him. What if she snapped and ran off? His objective would be null and void.

“There be fairies here…”He whispered comfortingly, trying to get past the tears that rolled down her cheeks. She looked up, eyes alive with a sudden rush of questions aching to be asked. “Magic and a wonderful world unlike anything you have ever seen…”

Aurora couldn’t hold onto her thoughts any longer and let all the questions she had wondered since she had gotten there spew out in a ten question long sentence. Things like: How she had gotten into this dream-like world, what exactly those creatures were that had chased them, how he knew who she was right off the bat, and a whole matter of other questions that she barraged upon this oddly speaking boy.

Finally, when Aurora ran out of breath and Pery could open his mouth to answer, the comforting silence was interrupted by a loud crash within the surrounding trees.

Pery bolted up and dumped the stew on the cinders, leaving them to sizzle and hiss their objections. Wide eyed, Aurora muttered what the matter was. Pery instantly snapped his hand over her mouth as he glanced out the nearest window. To his horror, a very large beast, twice the size of those that pursued them this morning, came barrelling towards the hut, determined and ready to kill anything in its path.

“-Time to run again.” He muttered breathlessly as he practically shoved Aurora out the back door and into the vast darkness that beheld the surrounding woods. Aurora’s ears rang with the sound of her own heartbeat and laboured breath. Sheer terror melted through her veins, making her wish she had those answers to what was chasing them and why.

Her heart raced as the sound of their running footsteps crunching through last season’s dried leaves seemed to echo eerily around them. The sound of the hut crumbling from the monster’s angry blow reached their ears, making Pery skip a beat in stride as they tried to get as far away from there as they possibly could.

Even in the darkness, Aurora could see how crushed Pery was to have the only connection to his family being blasted to smithereens. He was so tempted to turn tale and kick that monster’s face in for desecrating those stones, but thought better of it for fear of putting his companion in danger.

Pery and Aurora darted behind a huge tree the span of a spacious lavatory. Listening intently to anything that may be following, all they could hear was their own laboured breath.

“Why the hell are those things chasing us?” Aurora exclaimed in a whisper between breaths.

Pery glanced at her and turned away in embarrassment. “-I stole some things from them… Now they’re out to kill me.” He jeered sarcastically. Aurora gave him a look of annoyance as Pery shuffled from foot to foot.

“Oh my God, I’m following a delinquent thief…” Aurora mumbled to herself.

“It was a bunch of magical devices they had stolen from Kanna, Milady. They took a great amount of healing supplies that were meant for the towns-folk…”He said exasperated. “She’s the Seer of the area; people come to her for spells and talismans against the evils of this world.”

“Wait a minute, Seer? As in hedgewitch? As in a witch-witch?... and what kind of evil exactly? More of those monsters back there?”

“Each world has their balance of good and evil forces, Milady. Ours is no different.”

“My world is different!”

“… I know there aren’t much magical forces in your world, Aurora, but those that are dark within their soul are balanced with those that are light…”

Aurora stood there, blank-faced as slate. Is he trying to pull some religious thing on me? The inner debate of a balanced religion ran through her head as Pery silently began to walk further into the darkness that surrounded them. Aurora snapped out of her thoughts and stumbled through the underbrush as quietly as she could manage.

“Pery, wait- wait! I can’t see…. Why are your eyes glowing?...” Her eyes bulged in the darkness. His eyes were glowing, as if reflecting light like a cat. Aurora’s hair stood on end at the eerie sight of it.

“-Spell.” He muttered patiently as he strode right in front of Aurora. She could feel Pery's hand glide over her face and had to step back from the sheer closeness that she was not used to; clearly to him, personal boundaries didn’t mean much.

Within a couple of seconds, Aurora’s vision became as clear as day. She could see everything with an eerie clarity that goes beyond the eye’s sight.

“We must move fast. The Aslaik is still hunting us and this sight only lasts an hour…”

Aurora didn’t have to be told. She kept up with her companion easily as they loped through the dank and crowded paths. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to meet this Hedge witch that could, in all possibilities, change her into something unpleasant; If she knew this kind of magic, what else did this lady know?

Next chapter coming soon...